Most of us want our content to have a great SEO score and be searchable by the public, which is why WordPress gives you a default setting when you open an account. However, what they also give you the option to ‘discourage search engines from indexing pages’. Checking this box is one of the easiest – and costliest – mistakes you can make with a WordPress site.

What so bad about this WordPress Mistake

If you want to broaden your audience and get found online, it’s pretty bad. Checking the box is fine if your site is still under development and you don’t want search engines to inspect its content. But if your site is live, this setting will dramatically reduce traffic to your page as the setting basically means “please make the site not show up in Google search until further notice”.

How to put it right

Wondering if you accidentally committed this common WordPress mistake? From your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings, select Reading, and make sure that the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ checkbox is not ticked. Sorted!

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